Empire WatchAnalysis of current world affairs with focus on gloabal struggle for social and economic justice and against racism, war, imperialism and oppression much of it brought on by US Empire and its allies

Another Policeman is Shot Dead and a Militarized Police Shuts Down the Neighborhood

Another police officer is shot dead. The Chicago police, the surrounding police departments, the Sheriff’s Department, the squad team, the gang unit, the drug unit, the ATF, the FBI, U.S. marshals and other members of law enforcement are all on the hunt for the suspects. They have locked down schools, stopped trains from running, have closed off several blocks in the area and set up military checkpoints. According to news reports, thousands of officers armed with automatic rifles, machine guns and heavy equipment are searching the area with all kinds of military vehicles, including helicopters and ominous looking military personnel carriers with heavy armor, curiously marked “police rescue”, rescue being the only thing they have nothing in common with. It makes you realize just how prepared they are to face an angry people on the streets demanding change.

They bring their big guns when one of them is shot dead, but when an officer murders someone in execution style, it takes weeks and months of protests for an indictment, if it ever comes, protests that are routinely attacked by these cops.

Cable news channels are now trying to portray this intense military-occupation type manhunt in residential areas to be “for the safety of the residents”!! They show police spokespeople saying that the anti police rhetoric of the late is responsible for such killings. So, I’d like to do my part to tone down that rhetoric. Please, people, don’t post pictures and videos showing the truth about violent and racist police, beating and killing unarmed men and women. Please don’t expose their brutality, savagery and lawlessness and don’t tell people what kind of violent psychopaths they are, so they can continue their rampage on innocent people.

It’s clear to those who have been paying attention that, quietly and without any proclamations and fanfare, a transformation has taken place: the police has now become so militarized, complete with military tactics and weapons, that you can’t tell them apart from the real military anymore. They have in essence become an occupation force. Such transformations do not occur overnight and they never happen unwittingly and without a deliberate purpose and plan.